12.07.2014

Saturday
Finally, we had an entire free day to rest up from a week of hard work. Some of us used this day to visit Barcelona, and some spent the day at the beach in Sitges.
In Barcelona, we visited the Sagrada Familia, the city beach and had a long day at the zoo.
We also passed by the football stadium.
As for the rest of us, we had heard many things about the art history of Sitges, and were looking forward to wandering the picturesque alleyways and taking in some rays on the sand.
A swim in the sea was very much called for, and was even warmer than the pool! We played some ball games, sunbathed and enjoyed the local sights. Some us of enjoyed it a little too much and got very very bad sunburns, but it was a really great day off.

Once we came back, we were so exhausted from the sea and sun that we only had energy for dinner and a slow night before bed.

11.07.2014
Friday
In a surprising turn of events, we woke up at 7am to the soothing sounds of Alegria.
It was another normal day at work as far as the schedule goes, although on behalf of the Iberian team, it was by far the hardest thus far. Our team worked with Manel on leveling area 3. Even after many hours´work, we saw no visible progress. We were pretty defeated, although Manel said he could see the difference :)

aaaaand Friday night!!!

This night was pretty eventful. Things escalated quickly.
Many of us elected to dedicate our free night to drinking. Not just drinking - international drinking. We had Armenian cognac, Russian vodka and Spanish beer. Of course, one cannot simply drink, though, so we drank with the aid of Beer Pong and Ring of Fire. In high spirits, we met some locals and headed to the bar to continue the festivities. And what happens in Begues stays in Begues.

July 10th 2014

After our usual trip up to the cave in the morning and lunch, during which we quite literally had to sit and watch our water melt from ´popsicles´ before we could drink it, we took a relaxing afternoon away from lab work to take part in a mysteriously ´enchanted´ activity. Taking inspiration from the clay figurines found all over the world and in particular the one discovered in the cave Can Sadurní, we attempted to make our own masterpieces. Some of us were more creative than others….

Using clay from the local area as their ancestors would have done, we started with the basis of rolling the material around wooden sticks…

 

Achieving this, next came the tricky part of trying to make the rolled clay resemble something human, which was not easy at all….

It was up to the artist whether they gave their statuettes masculine or feminine shapes, with the feminine causing much laughter in camp with their ´accentuated´ features. Some decided to put their own artistic spirit into their creations and Rune even had his face covered with clay to make an interesting ´Neolithic´ style mask… #swag

Finishing early and leaving them to dry, we decided to take to the opportunity to share snacks, not all of which ended up in our stomachs, and, instead, made a nice decoration on the floor as a few made sport of trying to throw food into each others mouths. We also enjoyed giving Yun what he kept telling Eli was his first taste of beer, he almost convincingly pulled it off… but not quite… #yolo

Supper delighted us with an unusual but delicious mixture of meatballs and potato/sausage mix. This was nicely polished off with surprise deserts from a far away land called Slovakia, kindly bought for us by the two Lucys. These were made up of wafers, chocolate and hazelnut, known as ´Horalky´. #Yum #foodporn.

After this wonderful/hard day we took ´a few´ cans of beer and decided to spice up our life @Begues. At first we revelled in a ´traditional´ game of cup flipping (there may have been some alcohol involved) and then the equally traditional game of beer-pong (once again, there may have been some alcohol consumed). One team in particular seemed to have had plenty of practice before as they dominated cup flipping, so were made to separate for the second round involving the beer-pong, this made for a much closer result. A great end to another great day @Begues.            

July 9th 2014

Like every day, we woke up at 7 and got up to go the cave. #earlybird
We actually had our first day of proper work since we removed all of the vegetation the day before and so the digging games began. Everyone was really eager to find something. The terrace was split into different areas by Pablo and Eli and every group was supposed to work in a different area. Main parts of the work included cleaning the place of all the soil with big worms which stopped work from time to time.#screaminggirls Since there are quite a few stones and rocks in the area they had to be removed as well.
For our breakfast at site we had cheese on our sandwiches. I wish they put some oil (or butter for normal people*) on the bread. Afterwards we worked for another two hours.

When we finished digging and cleaning, we went to the swimming pool once again. The water was still cold (not for northern people) and clouds were back again (big debate to determine if this information is right).
For lunch we had pasta and mashed potatoes with pork. #foodporn
when we got back to camp, some people played table tennis, others took a nap and some went to get some slushies or ice-cream. #yolo
Some individuals preferred looking at their mobiles instead of communicating. #selfie
During lab work, the final member of our group arrived. #bigwelcome
Right before dinner the group "Els Encantats de Begues" invited us to have a look at their human towers. They even encouraged us to take part in building them by integrating us into the base. #risky #scared #poorbenny

We had burgers for dinner #happyguys
Because of football we had to delay the evening activitiy to Wednesday and played Bingo that night. Instead of numbers, we were given questions and had to find people within the group who fitted those questions and get them to sign their paper. Each person could only sign the paper of another player twice. Whoever got to 30 signatures first, had won the game. In the end Théo was crowned winner, while Irina was the first one to finish a single line. #fun #champs #goodtimes
After the bingo some people went out to town again to watch the match between Argentina and Switzerland in the Sports Bar. However after 90 minutes and with no team scoring everyone left the bar and the day was over. #sleep #latenight #snoringandtalking
#hashtag #hashtagception

* Understand normal people as french ones.**
** Not only french ones.

First day at work and Match day

We woke up in the morning hearing a beautiful song “Alegria”. It was a good way to start the day… But suddenly you can´t get this song out of your head! And the whole camp keeps singing the song………

After what felt like an hours walk to the cave, we had a short lecture again, but today nobody fell asleep as yesterday. The main goal of the day was to clean the site from vegetation and it was fine work, but a bit monotonous.

The watermelon was good. Thanks.

After some hard work, some went to the pool and some went back to the school. The pool was toooooooo cold.

As usual we had lunch, lab work and dinner. Thereafter the funny part could start. The World Cups first semifinal: Germany against Brazil.

The game started out great, with a fast goal for Germany, but when they scored the 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th goal, the game became kind of boring for some people. (of course not for Benny The German). So in the break time some began playing “Flip The Cup”, which is a funny drinking game.

Meanwhile football was going on, some of the Campers tasted Spanish ice cream in the local park. It was very sweet and you better try it!

After this long and interesting day, we finally could go to sleep. Sweet dreams J

Workcamp 2014 - Storm is coming

Monday 7th -  Day 1

We woke up at 7.30am to a storm today! So, instead of walking to the cave we stayed at the school where we sleep and listened to a lecture about Cova de Can Sadurní. This lasted for 2 hours….. 3 people fell asleep… - Alan, Benny & Theo. Haha! Only the Archaeologists managed to stay awake.

After breakfast we split into four groups – Romans, Iberians, Greeks and Egyptians. Each group did a different activity as part of lab work:

• Romans and Iberians were sifting through sediment, looking for lithics, bones, pottery or charcoal.
• Greeks were cleaning pottery, bagging the pieces and classifying also.
• Egyptians were trying to find small bone fragments in sediment.

After lunch we took our first visit up towards the cave, carrying the tools. We had a quick introduction about the cave and had a chance to walk about below where they found the Neolithic skeletons. Then it rained….. So we didn’t work and half of us ran back to the school. WE WERE WET! L

During the evening we played some games. In particular the carrot game that Jordi learnt in Palestine. We formed a really tight circle, all touching shoulders and had to pass a carrot around behind our backs. There was one person in the middle who had to guess who had the carrot and we had to eat and finish the carrot before the person in the centre finds it. If they found it we had to switch with the person in the middle. We ate a lot of carrots…. Afterwards we played Werewolf. Jong Yeoun Jung was the last werewolf! Everyone had fun and it was a great game. Then we slept, finally. It was a LONG day.  

Last day at the cave - july 19th

Friday morning was the last day working at the terrace of the Can Sadurní cave. Our goal was to level the five different areas around the entrance of the cave in order to be able to have guided visits and thanks to the hard work of all Work camp members we were able to achieve it. Now the inner terrace inside the fence is all levelled and ready to start for excavation purposes, and the outside has two extra meters of space to accommodate the visitors.

The group has worked during two weeks cleaning the Lime oven at the foot of the hill where the Can Sadurní cave is located, and levelling, digging, cleaning and drawing at the terrace in front of the cave. Thanks to this tasks we have been able to remove the rocks fallen down from the shelter of the cave, and the surrounding area will be able to be excavated in following campaigns. Thanks again to all of you that have made this possible, easy and enjoyable.

We still have a surprise to share during the following days, from Russia with love - Tom we are waiting for your video-.

During the afternoon some of us went to visit the Rhinoceros Cave, and could see the little elephant that is being dug out. Another group visited the Can Sadurní wine cellars in Begues.

Chus, Eli, Pablo, Manel & Jordi